By now, you should have assigned and graded several informal assessments.
Describe the objective and at least one feature of an informal assessment that you have designed.
One informal assessment I have given was an in-class literature circle assignment. Each of the students was assigned an article based on their reading abilities. The articles related to evolution and natural selection in some form. While reading the articles, the students were required to circle vocabulary terms as well as underline important/interesting ideas. After reading, the students wrote a small summary and listed/defined vocabulary words they circled from their article. I assigned them to groups of three [each member of their group represented one of the three articles] and they had to share their article summaries and compare/contrast their articles with that of their peers.
How have you been using the results of the assessments you've used to improve how you teach and what students learn? What strategies has your CT suggested for providing students with guidance before they do the assignment to improve their performance? What about after the assignment?
I've noticed that when I'm giving the students instruction, I have to repeat myself multiple times. I feel that partly it's because they aren't listening and also they sometimes aren't understanding what I'm asking of them. With this assignment in particular, students were completing the assignment but I feel that it was difficult for them to connect the articles to the topics we were focusing on in class. They were focusing more on the article itself versus the main ideas. My CT mentioned that I could've monitored their in-class reading time more closely to ensure understanding versus reading to get it done. Also in general, I should wait for the students to be focused before I give instructions to ensure the students are listening and can be held responsible for the instructions that are given. This will solve most of the confusion once the activity begins. My CT also suggested that I begin to wrap up before the 5 minute warning is given that way the students have a minute or two to finish what they are working on and will also allow me to have the full 5 minutes to wrap up the lesson/activity.
Describe the objective and at least one feature of an informal assessment that you have designed.
One informal assessment I have given was an in-class literature circle assignment. Each of the students was assigned an article based on their reading abilities. The articles related to evolution and natural selection in some form. While reading the articles, the students were required to circle vocabulary terms as well as underline important/interesting ideas. After reading, the students wrote a small summary and listed/defined vocabulary words they circled from their article. I assigned them to groups of three [each member of their group represented one of the three articles] and they had to share their article summaries and compare/contrast their articles with that of their peers.
How have you been using the results of the assessments you've used to improve how you teach and what students learn? What strategies has your CT suggested for providing students with guidance before they do the assignment to improve their performance? What about after the assignment?
I've noticed that when I'm giving the students instruction, I have to repeat myself multiple times. I feel that partly it's because they aren't listening and also they sometimes aren't understanding what I'm asking of them. With this assignment in particular, students were completing the assignment but I feel that it was difficult for them to connect the articles to the topics we were focusing on in class. They were focusing more on the article itself versus the main ideas. My CT mentioned that I could've monitored their in-class reading time more closely to ensure understanding versus reading to get it done. Also in general, I should wait for the students to be focused before I give instructions to ensure the students are listening and can be held responsible for the instructions that are given. This will solve most of the confusion once the activity begins. My CT also suggested that I begin to wrap up before the 5 minute warning is given that way the students have a minute or two to finish what they are working on and will also allow me to have the full 5 minutes to wrap up the lesson/activity.